-
De-Influencing for a Simpler Life
There was a time when people called it “keeping up with the Joneses.” Now it comes to us through endless scrolling, targeted ads, influencer hauls, aesthetic trends, productivity gadgets, beauty routines, home resets, organization systems, and carefully curated videos designed to make ordinary life feel inadequate. The message is constant: You need this. Your home needs this. Your children need this. Your routine would be better with this. Your kitchen would function better with this. Your life would finally feel peaceful if you just bought one more thing. And little by little, many of us end up overwhelmed, overstuffed, overstimulated, and financially strained while still somehow feeling like we don’t…
-
Let Your Home Work for You
Many years ago, I was part of a homemaking group run by a woman who said something that stayed with me all these years. She talked about the modern conveniences in our homes as “servants.” The dishwasher. The crock pot. The washing machine. The freezer. The bread machine. The food processor. The vacuum cleaner. These tools were designed to help carry some of the weight of daily life. And yet, so often, we don’t truly use them in ways that serve us well. Some appliances sit untouched in cabinets because we think using them somehow “doesn’t count” as real homemaking. Others are used only occasionally while we continue doing things…
-
What If We’re Missing More by Always Being Connected?
Somewhere along the way, constant accessibility became normal. Our phones go everywhere with us: into the kitchen into the garden into restaurants beside our beds into quiet moments that once belonged only to ourselves We check notifications while folding laundry. We scroll while waiting for water to boil. We answer messages while supposedly resting. Even moments of silence are quickly filled with noise from a screen. And most of us have been taught to feel uncomfortable if we are unavailable for too long. A missed text feels urgent. An unanswered message creates guilt. A notification pulls at our attention. Social media quietly convinces us everyone else is doing more, knowing…
-
Small Batch Living Changed My Home More Than I Expected
For a long time, I thought certain parts of homemaking simply weren’t realistic for me. I loved the idea of gardening. I admired people who canned food, stocked pantries, and prepared meals ahead of time. I wanted a home that felt a little more intentional and less rushed. But every example I saw seemed to involve massive amounts of work. Huge gardens. Entire weekends of canning. Twenty freezer meals at once. Five-gallon buckets. Assembly-line cooking sessions. Even reading about it felt exhausting. Between raising children, working, dealing with chronic pain from fibromyalgia, lingering exhaustion after illness, and simply trying to keep up with everyday life, I often felt like homemaking…
